30 Retired Abia Permanent Secs Alleged Stigmatisation

Thirty retired permanent secretaries in Abia State have alleged career stigma, saying they were being left to grapple with uncertainties regarding their future after their retirement in October last year.

The former permanent secretaries stated this yesterday in a statement read by their spokesperson, Nkwachukwu Agomuo, at a press briefing to mark the retirement in Umuahia, the capital.
They explained that it had become urgent and pressing for them to bring their plight to light because their services in the state civil service were cut short.

Describing the retirement as abrupt, they asserted that, “Since then, we’re yet to receive our entitlements with respect to severance and furniture allowances, and gratuities.”

According to them, they’ve taken several measures, including writing and interfacing with government officials and stakeholders to intervene on their behalf, but to no avail.

“This response of ‘silence’ by those relevant to our issue leaves much to be desired. This has left us in dire straits financially and emotionally. Our families and dependents are suffering untold hardships from actions or inactions perpetrated by certain officers whom the governor had given heads-on to our matter,” they said.

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They argued that with no payment since retirement, except their meagre monthly pensions, their dependents had been forced to make difficult choices.

They appealed to the governor, Alex Otti, to prevail on the accountant-general of the state whom they said had been given approval to make the payments, to comply.

“We’re not just statistics; we’re mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters and foremost diligent Abians. We have given our lives and time and therefore deserve our wages,” they pleaded.